Desrio

Gently paced, wonderfully acted by a great cast, this movie explores some of the contradictions of modern life.

At what point does encouragement tip over into dishonesty? At what point does encouragement become inappropriate, and does that encouragement set the recipient up for failure?

These sound like the subjects of weighty discussions, but in You Hurt My Feelings, these issues are explored with tenderness and at times laugh out loud humour.

Where the film perhaps falls a little flat is that while we go through the experiences that force the characters to ask questions of themselves and others, it doesn't do much to create emotional investment on their behalf from the audience.

It would be tempting to see the main protagonists as self-indulgent 'snowflakes' experiencing first world problems, but I believe that thought-provoking questions are posed about that area in the Venn diagram that love and support share with dishonesty, however well meant.

That said, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Beth carries the film with ease, and a special mention goes to Jeannie Berlin as Beth's irascible mother.

I wanted to give this film 7.5 but can't. I've decided that a mere 7 was too low so, despite my reservations, I have been generous and given it and 8.

With a British family setting off to start a new life in Australia in the mid-1950s at the centre of the story, the audience is soon introduced to more characters whose lives intersect at the camp where the family are settled on arrival ("like a prisoner of war camp", says Terry, father of the family and a man haunted by his experiences as a soldier during the Second World War). In no time there are half a dozen story strands to follow.

This sense of urgency to have us galloping along with the narrative is presaged by having no scenes taking place on the three-week journey to Australia and with the voyage mentioned only for expositionary purposes. There is a jolting sensation as we see the family embarking upon the ship in the UK and in the next scene they are setting foot on Australian soil, where we are given a rather heavy-handed introduction to ideas central to the narrative.

Our family are soon experiencing culture clashes - British and Australian, white Australian and Aboriginal - while they try to find their feet, with themes of self-identity and self-discovery thrown in. However, none of these themes are explored in any depth and the story lines are no more than you might expect in a soap opera.

Fay Marsay wins our sympathies as the mother trying to be strong for her family, especially when her husband, played with sensitivity by Warren Brown, is weakened by the demons that plague him. But elsewhere, characters are too two-dimensional to evoke any real interest.

It's clear from the final scene that creator, Daniel Brocklehurst, has an eye to a second series, but while I was reasonably entertained by Ten Pound Poms, I don't think I was entertained enough to be going back for more.

I'm not really part of the typical medical drama audience, but I had heard good things about this seven-part drama. With the ever-excellent Ben Wishaw in the lead role, I thought it was worth a punt. So glad I watched!

At times laugh out loud funny, at others heartbreakingly sad, frequently gory but always compelling. Well paced with a great cast and sure-handed direction, I am happy to give this excellent drama my wholehearted recommendation. 8/10.

Two young men, who spent time together at Oxford University, find themselves, a few years later, both attending a conference in Munich - a conference aimed at avoiding the conflict that was to become the Second World War.

One of the men, Hugh Legat (George MacKay) is now secretary to British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, while the other Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner) is a German diplomat. The two find themselves embroiled in covert dealings and espionage in an attempt to avert disaster.

Adapted from Robert Harris's novel Munich, Christian Schwochow's movie can be looked at in two ways: one is to view it as a historical drama with adventure elements thrown in to keep it entertaining, while the other is to see it as a spy story set against a factual backdrop.

Perhaps the film's weakness is that it never seems to quite know which it is.

That said, although the pacing needed to be snappier to really make it work as a thriller, all the elements are there to keep us entertained. Historically, the story is clearly sympathetic to the still unpopular view that Chamberlain knew what he was doing and bought the allies more time to prepare for an inevitable war, and in so doing it is informative and will, no doubt, fuel debate among amateur historians.

Criticisms aside, Munich: The Edge Of War, is a solid two hours of well-made drama. Jeremy Irons shows why his career endures by giving real life and subtle shading to Chamberlain, showing him to be a man outwardly confident in his abilities as a statesman while being quietly plagued by personal self-doubt.

Tighter direction and editing would, I'm sure, energise this film, but it still deserves a respectable seven stars from this viewer.

In 1950s Yorkshire, Ellen, mother of 10 year-old Victor, is stifled in a loveless marriage to her factory worker husband. In an otherwise dull life, Victor's teacher, Kathy is a source of light and colour. Soon, Ellen realises that her feelings for Kathy go deeper than just friendship.

Victor is a bright and gifted lad whose artistic ability brings him to the attention of his teacher, Miss Thomson. Her encouragement and her part in having his work included in a local art exhibition give her and Victor's mother, Ellen, common cause and, as a result, they spend a good deal of time together.

While Ellen is uneducated, she is intelligent and articulate and expresses how much she would like to have seen more of life; to have learned more. Miss Thomson - Kathy - listens and empathises with her new friend. As a result Ellen and Kathy, with Victor in tow, start to see each other socially.

Meanwhile, Ellen's husband, Geoff, who is a dutiful but unloving husband, and who struggles to find any way in which to relate to his son or appreciate his son's gifts, dislikes Ellen's new friendship, perhaps sensing that Kathy is more in a position to repond to Ellen's wider emotional and intellectual vistas.

As Ellen and Kathy's friendship deepens it becomes noticeable that there is connection building between them.

Summer comes, and one night while Ellen is away on holiday with Geoff and Victor, she realises, during a thunderstorm, that Kathy gives her things that Geoff never could, and with it she realises just how deep her feelings for her now lie. The realisation is like being struck by the lightning flashing outside.

Between Two Women is something of a family affair with Victor being played by Edward Woodcock, son of writer/director/producer Stephen and executive producer, Julie. Andrew Dunn, a capable actor, is not given the opportunity to bring more to a role that we have seen all too many times before - the gruff, emotionally repressed, working-class Northern male. Andrina Carroll, is charming as Kathy, but plays her with a touch of timidity that is somewhat at odds with her apparent sophistication and wide-ranging intellect. Barbara Marten, however, makes up for the other characters' deficits by portraying Ellen as a woman who is warm and loving, and whose eyes search for some far distant horizon that she is never likely to see; all the while with a hint of sadness that wins our sympathies.

With a running time of just 92 minutes, Between Two Women is not without its longueurs. At times the characters seem to be shuffled about without any real sense of purpose or meaning: a scene where Victor plays with a friend near a railway line hints at the possibility of great danger, but it plays out without incident. Perhaps the film's origins on commercial TV account for its peculiar dramatic rhythms. Elsewhere, a strangely inappropriate synthesiser soundtrack by Michael Hammer - sounding like something you might find playing in the background in a shop that stocks healing crystals - intrudes and does nothing to support the period feel of the film.

Woodcock's film seeks to explore the emergence of 'forbidden' love and does so without titillation, dwelling instead on emotional intimacy. But even there it never fully comes to grips it's subject, offering us no release through professions of love or even a kiss. Throughout, trains are used, somewhat heavy-handedly, as a metaphor for escape and freedom, not least when Ellen and her parents see off Ellen's sister and her husband as they embark on their journey to a new life in Australia, the 'Young Country'

Slow, intimate and with an adumbrative ending, Between Two Women would, I'm sure, be an altogether better film with a new soundtrack and some substantial re-editing.

1917 - A group of civilian tunnellers, led by William Hawkin, a man determined to 'do his bit', are recruited to carry out an audacious plan to break a stalemate in the Battle of Messines.

After reaching an impasse in which the British army have lost thousands of men, Captain John 'Hellfire Jack' Norton-Griffith conceives a plan to dig tunnels under the enemies positions and blow them up from below.

He goes to a tunnelling company in the North-East of England and, against the company owner's wishes, recruits men who have the expertise to carry out the job. These are men whose health has been deemed to poor to take part in active service or who are too young - in reality, some of the Royal Engineering Tunnelling Company, as they came to be known (popularly referred to as the Clay Kickers), were as young as fourteen.

The War Below is the feature length debut of director J. P. Watts, who also wrote the screen play. The real-life 'Hellfire Jack' is played by Tom Goodman-Hill and William Hawkin is played by Sam Hazeldine.

Watt's lack of experience shows in a film that never delivers the sort of emotional punch that a tale like this needs, although the obviously tight budget can't have helped to expand the story. The Clay Kickers, who in reality numbered in their thousands and consisted of British, Canadian and Australian miners, are reduced to just four men here, which somewhat undermines the film's credibility. However, cinematographer Nick Cooke does an admirable job of creating a convincing atmosphere with what's available.

At times it seems as though the cast struggle with a script that too often sounds stilted, and a disappointing number of the expected, standard characters are present - the high-minded, unfeeling commanding officer, the fierce sergeant who, beneath the formidable exterior, is a compassionate man on the side of his men rather than those in command, etc.

Goodman-Hill, a fine character actor and whose comedy work is to be admired, fails to breathe real life into Cpt. Norton-Griffiths, and certainly doesn't give us any understanding of why his character earned the moniker 'Helfire Jack'. Only Sam Hazeldine's performance stands out, portraying Hawkin as a warm, compassionate man with great personal strength.

Watts has made a film that is earnest in its endeavours, but which simply doesn't convey the powerful reality behind this story or fully illustrate the harsh conditions, the arduous work and the emotional toll on the men involved.

Those who are interested in the subject matter would do much better to watch the superior Beneath Hill 60 (2010) directed by Jeremy Sims. This tells the story of the 1st Australian Mining Company who were part of the tunnelling project at Messines.

The War Below, despite its best endeavours, earns just six stars from me.

Another zip-along installment in the Shaun The Sheep franchise which at thirty minutes long doesn't outstay it's welcome.

This episode sees Timmy inadvertantly becoming a Christmas present for the young daughter of a couple who are internet 'influencer' celebrities - Aardman managing to blend an old-fashioned vision of the world with contemporary relevance. Of course the flock, led by Shaun are in pursuit.

While funny and displaying all the wit and imagination we have come to expect from Aardman, this latest outing for Shaun lacks any real stand out moments - at least for this viewer.

That said, I think we can all expect to see and enjoy The Flight Before Christmas for many years to come.

PS - Am I alone in thinking Dad Influencer looks an awful lot like Rob Brydon?

Hit man, Victor Maynard (Bill Nighy) is hired by gang boss, Ferguson (Rupert Everett) to kill Rose (Emily Blunt) who has just swindled him out of £900,000 by selling him a fake Rembrandt. Upon learning that Victor has failed to complete the assignment, another hit man, Dixon (Martin Freeman) is hired by Ferguson to kill both Rose and Victor, who manage to foil the assassination attempt and go into hiding, having picked up a wandering stoner, in the shape of Rupert Grint, along the way.

Thus begins Jonathan Lynn's rather ramshackle remake of Pierre Salvadori's, 1993 French farce 'Cible Emouvante'.

Lynn started his directorial career in television, and it shows in this cheap looking production, which reads more like an extended episode of a TV comedy.

A good cast is wasted on a poor script and a plot riddled with holes. One must assume that the bulk of the budget was spent luring the likes of Nighy, Blunt and Everett into the production (which also includes Eileen Atkins, who should have known better) because the film, as a whole, is cheap-looking and badly lit.

Everett's character just drifts out of the tale as the whole thing lurches towards a wholly predictable conclusion.

Tagged as being 'action' and 'comedy', Wild Target fails on both counts. I give it five stars, and at least two of those were for a cast struggling on with very poor material.

You've seen this film before. You have!

Well, maybe not this exact one, but you've seen all its components in other movies - just in a different order perhaps.

Let's have a look at those components:

Elegiac film about a last summer of innocence? Check!

A sensitive aspiring writer whose best friends seems to be unlikely choices? Check!

A sensitive aspiring writer who wants to leave his small minded, small town? Check!

And those best friends - is one a bland but pleasant enough character who is really just a means of allowing us to hear the sensitive writer's thoughts, and does the other one provide comic relief? Check?

And although the friends say that they too want to escape town, does it become clear that they don't because they are suited to small-town life and will never leave? Of course!

How about a seemingly unattainable girl who barely notices the sensitive writer? Yep, got one of those!

Does she have a two-dimensional insensitive brute of a boyfriend who is an obstacle standing in the way of true love but who mysteriously seems to have convinced the girl he should her boyfriend? You bet!

I know. What about a wild animal that acts as a metaphor for freedom and may or may not have some kind of metaphysical role as well? From start to finish!

Add to this a script that treats the female characters as nothing more than cyphers; completely lacking any kind of inner life, some 'they all look the same' racist stereotyping, and an ending, rounding off two very long hours, that helps tie up the loose ends but which is morally very suspect indeed, and you have As I Am (Philophobia, in some markets).

I was being very generous when I gave the film six points. Really, don't bother.

When we meet her, Clarice Cliff is a young, ambitious pottery worker who flits from company to company in order to gain as much experience within different departments as possible - at the time it was not unusual for someone to specialise one particular task for their entire working life. Clarice is ambitious and talented, but her talent has yet to be discovered.

Claire McCarthy's, The Colour Room is the story of the rise of Clarice and her struggle to have her talent recognised.

She is ably played by Phoebe Dynevor, best known as one of the main characters in the Netflix hit, Bridgerton. Dynevor imbues Clarice with vivacity, wit and charm, and her ambition is portrayed as enthusiasm and passion.

Opposite her, Matthew Goode gives us his generic but still very watchable posh chap in the part of factory owner and lover, Colley Short.

Solid support comes from Kerry Fox as Clarice's mother and David Morrissey, rather underused as the company's art director who takes Clarice under his wing.

The screenplay is by Claire Peate who takes some liberties with the story - five of Clarice's six siblings seem to have evaporated and the success of her first range of pottery, the famous 'Bizarre' ware, central to this story, was pretty much instant rather than the uphill struggle we see. However, Peate gives the story contemporary relevance by emphasising the struggle of a woman trying to break into man's world - one co-worker who is suspicious of her being brought in to apprentice in the all-male modelling department voices his misgivings with "What if she's one of them suffragettes?". This could be the story of any woman trying to break through the glass, or in this case, ceramic ceiling.

Elsewhere, the adulterous nature of Clarice's relationship with Colley is rather played down, with Colley's wife scarcely making an appearance in case, one assumes, we start to develop any sympathies for her.

The cinematography and art direction are attractive with Clarice presaging her later ceramics in the colours of her clothes. However, the CGI scenes of ranks of bottle kilns belching smoke into the sky are somewhat unconvincing.

Undemanding, but with enough to keep the audience engaged, this straightforward biopic earns a respectable seven and makes for a decent, Sunday night movie to round off a weekend.

I don't think I'm really part of Zack Snyder's target audience, but that isn't to say that I don't from time to time enjoy the kind of films that he makes. So, a few months back I settled down to watch 'Army of The Dead'. The film was a hoot - it was slick, stylish and funny, but dramatic in all the right places (I particularly liked the look of the film, enjoying Snyder's work as his own cinematographer). But there was one character who stood out for me and that was Matthias Schweighöfer's, Dieter. Dieter was at once venal and innocent, somewhat geeky, rather out of his depth at times and, in that sense, something of an Everyman. So, it was with interest that I learned that Dieter was to be the star in his own prequel.

In Army of thieves (written by Army of the Dead co-writer, Shay Hatten and directed by Schweighöfer) Dieter - or Sebastian, as he is known when the story takes place - finds himself in an entirely different world. Set six years before Army of the Dead, 'Thieves' is a far more traditional heist film in which a band of people come together, each with a different skill set. This heist-movie trope is not lost on Dieter, which he points out, making a meta-joke of the film's time-honoured conventions. Their quest is to crack a series of supposedly impenetrable safes, each named after one of the operas in Wagner's Ring Cycle.

What follows is a rather formulaic movie which concentrates on the heist aspect and refers to the coming zombie apocalypse only as something that is troubling a far off country - not entirely differently to how the West saw Covid when it was still confined to China. This means that anyone new to the tale can dive right in, though the zombie references, which only tangentially impinge on the main story, may be mildly puzzling.

As with the plot, there is nothing new with the characters. Nathalie Emmanuel is engaging, if slightly implausible, as Gwendoline, the mastermind of the scheme. Ruby O. Fee is the computer nerd (but who is really quite cool beneath it all), the muscle come in the form of Brad, played by Hugh Jackman-alike, Stuart Martin, and Guz Khan's Rolf brings the driving skills and the comic focus in the gang.

As with its time-line sequel, Army of Thieves looks the part with plenty of European locations, and some slick CGI that allows us into the mechanics of the safes as they're being cracked and, by extension, the workings of Sebastian's mind. Where the two differ is in pacing and dynamics. Unfortunately, I found myself at one point looking to see how much of the film I had watched and how much was left - never a great sign. The hour and twenty minutes that had elapsed seemed longer, and I have to confess to feeling slightly dismayed that I still had about fifty minutes to go.

As a sub-plot, there is a burgeoning romance developing between Sebastian and Gwendoline, much to the annoyance of Brad, with whom Gwendoline is already in a relationship, and this threatens to divide the gang.

Hans Zimmer's score demonstrates why his services are so in demand in Hollywood, and a few rather obvious green-screen scenes notwithstanding, Bernhard Jasper's cinematography is crisp and cool.

Overlong but engaging, the film ends on a whimsical note, but one with added poignancy for anyone who has seen Army Of The Dead.

I wanted to give this movie 6.5 stars, but as I can't, I'm afraid to say it just gets a 6 from me.

Trite and formulaic, the film fails to capitalise on the rapport that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan have as actors.

I came away with an abiding sense of the whole exercise being nothing more than an advert for Google, especially towards the end of the fim when we are told several times about how Google is connecting people, connecting the world.

I think I might get in touch with them to see if there's anything they can do about refunding the two hours of my life I invested. 5/10.

Joseph is reserved and withdrawn. He is all but anonymous at his place of work, as we see when colleagues tuck into the cake he has brought in to celebrate his own birthday. They gripe about the cake, they help themselves to it, but nobody knows or seems to care whose birthday it is. Joseph remains silent.

Each day he is forced into intimate proximity with strangers in his job in airport security - frisking people, having to carry out 'private' searches, but all through his working day he must follow strict rules and is consequently deprived of any expression of his own personality.

After work he goes to see his parents for a birthday supper. His father is an angry, bullying man who sees fault in everyone but himself, his mother is cowed and acts in ways in which she appears to seek her husband's approval. Joseph is so tense that he bites through a glass from which he is drinking and flees the house.

The next day at work, the pressure has built to a such an extent that Joseph's mental state collapses and he walks out of the job. Then he robs a bank.

Ben Whishaw carries a heavy burden in his role as Joseph, he's in every scene and has to convince us of his character's mental decline. A job which he performs with great accomplishment as he draws us into the growing unreality that is Joseph's existence. A special mention should go to Ellie Haddington who playsJoseph's mother. She gives her character delicate shading so that we glimpse the real woman behind the mask of the dutiful and obedient wife.

The claustrophobic feeling of sharing space inside Joseph's head is greatly aided by cinematography, courtesy of Stuart Bentley, who uses hand-held cameras and a very shallow depth of field, and often fills the frame with Joseph, giving the impression that it is the world beyond his mental state that is the dream. We gain further insight into Joseph's anguish in a scene where he dismantles a hotel room and, cutting open the mattress on his bed, crawls inside as if trying to return to the womb.

Aneil Karia, director and co-writer has had made a name for himself with short films and this is perhaps where the fault lies with this, his feature-length debut. One can't help but wonder if the film may have had more punch had it been just an hour long. But it is, nonetheless, a striking debut with great promise for things to come.

Surge is a film that is at times almost painful to watch, such is its intensity; but it's a remarkable feature debut, and I will certainly be looking to see what else Aneil Karia will be bringing us in the future.

A basic story stretched rather thinly with, for the most part, unremarkable animation and a soundtrack that I expected to shine rather more than it did.

On the plus side, newcomer Ynairaly Simo gives it her all in the role of Gabi, and the song 'My Own Drum' really stands out.

Undaunted by the rather lacklustre rating that 23 Walks had received on IMDB, I approached the film with an open mind. A film with Alison Steadman and Dave Johns in the central roles, set against a backdrop of London's beautiful Hampstead Heath, and telling the tale of a late-flowering romance would be, at the very least, a painless way to pass an hour and three quarters.

Sadly, I was disappointed. The film never really seemed to come together. Steadman and Johns worked with an underwhelming script and never exhibited as actors the chemistry that their characters were supposed to be experiencing - I found myself wondering more than once just what it was that Fern (Steadman) and Dave (Johns) saw in each other .

A good director should always strive to bring out the best in the cast but all too often I found that the finished product felt like a recording of a rehearsal, with the leads struggling to find the correct timing or natural rhythm in their often unnatural sounding dialogue.

The storyline swung back and forth in a manner too restless for a movie of this nature rendering it an unconvincing battle against the odds, rather than a gentle rom-com.

I have given 23 Walks six points when in fact, it only merits five and a half.

I wish Spall, a gifted actor, would choose his projects more carefully. This is the second film of his I have watched this week (I Give It A Year being the other) and both left a lot to be desired.

The trouble with this film is that the time leaps are too frequent leading to a sense of repetition and giving Spall nothing to do that he didn't just do a few minutes previously. Perhaps five two-year leaps would have produced more interesting and varied results.

The film is redeemed somwhat by a touching if entirely predictable ending, but it wasn't enough to warrant more than a six from this viewer.

Will (Jermaine Clement), a somewhat introverted and pessimistic graphic novelist walks in on his partner, Charlie (Stephanie Allynne), having sex with another man while, downstairs, friends are enjoying a party to celebrate the fifth birthday of the couple's twin girls.

Fast forward a year and we find Will still coming to terms with his single status. However, following an awkward and initially misunderstood conversation with Kat (Jessica Williams), one of the students at the college where Will scrapes together a living as a part-time teacher, he finds himself set up on a dinner date with Kat's mother, Diane (Regina Hall). The date does not go well and Diane, herself a teacher at the prestigious Columbia University, is dismissive of Will's line of work both in literary terms, and as an art form.

The date, and the news that the now-pregnant Charlie is marrying her lover, leave Will contemplating both the possibilities for the future and the realisation that he still has feelings for Charlie, but he's unsure exactly what those feelings are.

Writer/director, Jim Strouse has written a sparky, quotable script which showcases Clement's comic timing, his understated acting style and his ability to show an entire confused train of thought with a fleeting facial expression. Allyne plays Charlie as a likeable woman and a good mother, but her self-focus ensures that our sympathies stay with Will. The twin girls (Aundrea and Gia Gadsby) quietly steal every scene they're in.

Strouse has a sure but light hand on the directorial tiller, and keeps the film on a course of relatable realism. We can understand Will being baffled by life at times and we feel his shock when reality bites him on the bum. None of the characters are larger than life, but all have ample substance to maintain our interest in them, and the fate of Will's on/off relationship with Diane keeps the audience curious about what the next act will bring.

Chris Teague's cinematography has a fresh, bright look to it, although when combined with the art direction and score, every frame leaves you in no doubt that you are watching an indie rom-com.

The story is told in such a way that not everything is spelled out for us and we must join the dots ourselves, just as when Will tells his students that the gaps between the panels in a comic can contain as much information as the panels themselves. The scenes in the classroom, along with Wills drawings (by artist Gray Williams), are used to illustrate Will's state of mind, with the students acting as a quasi-Greek-chorus to help the narrative along.

This sweet, good-hearted film is perhaps underserved by a wistfully equivocal ending, but Mark Orton's score over the final scene tells us that perhaps everything might just turn out all right after all.

The Comeback Trail (2020) Directed by George Gallo

The Comeback Trail is a remake of Harry Hurwitz's 1982 better received film of the same name.

In this lacklustre re-telling of the story, we find Max (Robert De Niro), a low-rent movie producer struggling to repay Morgan Freeman's mobster loan-shark, Reggie, after Max's latest film (Killer Nuns - "They're nuns with a baaad habit!") flops badly.

A young and highly successful rival producer, James (Emille Hirsch) has his newest production scuppered when his star is killed after falling from a building. Max is delighted at James' misfortune, but delight turns to rage when he learns that James is to receive several million dollars in an insurance payout. But then Max has an idea.

Max and his business partner nephew, Walter (Brach Zanf), set off to bring faded and all but forgotten Western star Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones) out of retirement. Unbeknownst to Walter, Max intends to insure Duke to the hilt and do away with him by means of a production 'accident'.

Director, George Gallo's helmsmanship is heavy-handed and every last drop is wrung out of each quip and gag. The thrust and parry of Max and Reggie's movie-based banter has Reggie threatening to kill Max in all sorts of cinematic ways ("with a bomb in your car like that Mexican kid in A Touch Of Evil" or "push him down the stairs like Richard Widmark did to that old bat in The Kiss Of Death"), but the promise of treats for movie buffs, if they pay attention, doesn't materialise. By the second act, much of the humour has descended into sight gags (De Niro is at one point knocked cold by a raging bull, so perhaps there are one or two treats after all!)

De Niro who, let's not forget, was once once considered to be one of the world's finest actors, chews his way through the script. Freeman doesn't try too hard, because he doesn't have to, and Zanf just looks as though he's trying to do the best with what he's been given in his role as Max's conscience. Only Tommy Lee Jones emerges unscathed, playing it straight and looking forward to pay day.

George Gallo, who, as well as directing, co-wrote the screenplay has had this project on the back burner for some years, having first put it aside to write the altogether more sparky script for Midnight Run. Sadly none of the sparks lingered to ignite this rather soggy affair.

One can't help wonder how this might have turned out if it had been put into the hands of the Coen Brothers, for instance or, given the distinct whiff of The Producers, what someone like Mel Brooks would have done with it.

Leo and Rob like to steal cars. They do it because it's fun and they have nothing else to do in the post-industrial port-side town where they live, though the few quid that Amir, a crooked garage owner, pays them a for the cars they bring him doesn't go amiss.

One day, Amir asks Leo to steal a car to-order from the docks; the pay is good and Leo wants Rob to be in on the job. Leo is keen, but Rob is dubious about the plan. Rob is right to to be dubious The plan becomes derailed, and the derailment has consequences.

When he isn't stealing cars with Leo, sometimes accompanied by Leo's girlfriend Kasia, who literally goes along for the ride, Rob looks after his terminally ill father, a former seaman who has contracted an asbestos-related lung condition and who has been abandoned by his culpable, erstwhile employers. Rob and his father, Oswald, have a strained relationship but Rob does his best to care for him .

The actors playing the central characters all give sterling performances. Charley Palmer Rothwell plays Rob as a young man confused about why his life should be the way it is, but also as a lad with a good heart. Morgane Polanski (daughter of Roman) shows Kasia, a college drop-out, as being just as aimless as Rob, but she is full of tenderness and love as we see, especially when she takes time to sit and talk to Oswald. Thomas Turgoose, best known from the Shane Meadows 'This Is England' series of films, expands his dramatic range and gives us a Leo who is by turns affable and quick tempered; his darker side giving him dominance over the more physically imposing, but softer-hearted Rob.

Director, Rene van Pannevis relies in this, his debut feature film, not so much on action (those looking for a crime caper should really look elsewhere), but on the meticulous examination of the characters; and his skill lies in making us care about them. He involves us in Rob and Oswald's bickering and he makes us want Rob to see that the loving Kasia might just offer him some hope for the future. Looted could easily be an Italian Neo-Realist piece transposed to present day Hartlepool.

Aadel Nodeh-Farahani's excellent cinematography juxtaposes the gloom of Oswald's makeshift bedroom at home with the big skies and far-horizon vistas that, even in his last days, Oswald still yearns for.

This slow-paced, almost elegiac film, a kind of cinematic love child of Ken Loach and Vittorio De Sica, gets a respectable 7 from this reviewer.

John Wick meets The Unforgiven directed by Sergio Leone. I have to say I quite enjoyed this film - it was just the thing after a particularly tiring day. Entertaining enough if you switch off at least some of your critical faculties.